The Florida Panthers are back home after a lengthy road trip in Canada, but it is a far different place than the home they left 11 days earlier.
“I wish I was there for my family and neighbors and everybody that’s been affected by this,” team captain Derek MacKenzie had said while away. “I need to hug my family.”
From Pine Trails Park, where MacKenzie’s wife would take their two young children to play, the view has changed in a week from one of idyllic tranquility to a tableau that jars the mind and wrenches the heart.